"Truth is powerful, and, if not instantly, at least by slow degrees, may make good her possession. Gleams of good sense may penetrate through the thickest clouds of error. But we are supposing in the present case that truth is the object of the preceptor. Upon that assumption it would be strange indeed, if he were not able to triumph over corruption and sophistry, with the advantage of being continually at hand, of watching every change and symptom as they may arise, and more especially with the advantage of real voice, of accommodated eloquence, and of living sympathies, over a dead letter. These advantages are sufficient; and, as the true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading should lead him into new trains of thinking; open to him new mines of science and new incentives to virtue; and perhaps, by a blended and compound effect, produce in him an improvement which was out of the limits of his lessons, and raise him to heights the preceptor never knew."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Historians from EnglandAtheists from EnglandNovelists from EnglandPhilosophers from EnglandAnarchists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
The Enquirer : Reflections on Education, Manners, and Literature (1797), Essay XV : Of Choice In Reading, p. 130, (1823 edition)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William Godwin
William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher, educationalist, novelist, historian and biographer. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism. He was the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, father of Mary Shelley and father-in-law of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
50 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Godwin →
Related Quotes
"Mankind will never be, in an eminent degree, virtuous and happy till each man shall possess that portion of distincti…"
"Simplify the social system, in the manner which every motive, but those of usurpation and ambition, powerfully recomm…"
"Nothing can be of more importance than to separate prejudice and mistake on the one hand from reason and demonstratio…"
"Privilege is a regulation rendering a few men, and those only, by the accident of their birth, eligible to certain si…"
"The case of mere titles is so absurd that it would deserve to be treated only with ridicule were t not for the seriou…"
"Till mankind be satisfied with the naked statement of what they really perceive, till they confess virtue to be then …"
"Democracy is a system of government according to which every member of society is considered as a man and nothing more."
"Anarchy, in its own nature, is an evil of short duration. The more horrible are the mischiefs it inflicts, the more d…"
"It is false that kings are entitled to the eminence they obtain. They possess no intrinsic superiority over their sub…"
"The evil of marriage, as is it practiced in the European countries, extends further than we have yet described. The m…"